What Does Proverbs 5:1 Mean?
My son, attend to my wisdom, and bend your ear to my understanding.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:THE KEY
Wisdom begins when the ear turns toward discernment, making understanding a posture of reception.
THE MEANING
The verse addresses you as someone who can receive wisdom by giving it your attention. Understanding is discernment, and the ear bends toward it as you listen.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that understanding comes through information alone; here, understanding meets an ear turned toward discernment.
THE ROOT
תְּבוּנָתִי
tevunati
GROWS FROM
בין
To discern, distinguish, or understand.
The word translated “understanding” is tevunah (תְּבוּנָה, discernment), from bin (בין, to discern or understand). Its related form bein (בֵּין, between) brings out the word’s texture: understanding perceives distinctions, the space between one thing and another.
ALSO GROWS
bin: Discern; understand.
בִּין
This verb names the act of distinguishing, showing that understanding involves perception, not simply holding information.
bein: Between; in the space between.
בֵּין
This related form links understanding with perceiving distinctions between things.
הַט
haṭ
GROWS FROM
נטה
To stretch out, incline, or turn aside.
“bend your ear” in this verse is haṭ. The word translated “bow” is haṭ (הַט, incline), from natah (נטה, stretch out or turn). The same verb describes stretching out a hand or spreading a tent, so the ear is pictured as extending toward understanding, opening itself to receive.
ALSO GROWS
nāṭâ yād: Stretch out a hand.
נָטָה יָד
The same root describes a reaching movement; here the ear reaches toward wisdom.
nāṭâ ʾōhel: Stretch or pitch a tent.
נָטָה אֹהֶל
The root also describes spreading a tent open, echoing the ear’s turn toward what can be received.
THE PATTERN
The ear that turns toward wisdom receives the life and discernment carried by hearing.
So that you bend your ear toward wisdom, and your heart toward discernment.Bend your ear and come to me. Hear and respond, and your living soul shall live. I will cut a covenant of the ages with you, the steady faithful loves of David.Know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to swell.THE THREAD
Bend your ear and come to me. Hear and respond, and your living soul shall live. I will cut a covenant of the ages with you, the steady faithful loves of David.Both verses use natah (נָטָה, incline or stretch out) for turning the ear toward what is heard. Isaiah makes the fruit of that movement explicit: hearing opens into life, and Proverbs shows the ear’s turn as the threshold of understanding.
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